Blogs from Coast Province, Kenya, Africa - page 12

Well, I have now been in Shimoni Kenya for a whole week, and it has been amazing. We got picked up from our hotel in Mombasa on Saturday and bused out to Shimoni. There were around 20 of us, so it made for a very fun bus ride. It was such an eye opener to look out and see the people and places go by the windows. I have travelled to developing countries before, but this was very different from any place I've been to before. In Shimoni we got lunch and a briefing at the Shimoni Reef Hotel, which is a very nice place. Some of the GVI staff are based there. After eating I learned that for the first 4 weeks I would be doing forest work based in Shimoni Village. After that I ... read more

Jambo from Kenya. The first couple of days travelling in Kenya were nothing short of the hardest two days we have had on our trip. It all started in Moyale, a town split by the border. After only finding disgusting accommodation riddled with cockroaches and our favourite, unclean communal toilets (an Ethiopian specialty) on the Ethiopian side we decided to risk it and cross the border hoping for something better, the problem being there was only one daily bus out of the place and it had long gone by the time we got there from Yabelo. We had no problems crossing the border, this is one that we were nervous about as they have had sporadic banditry right up to Moyale in the past, so getting across this with no hassle was a relief, although there ... read more

We left Nairobi first class (!) on the night train to Mombasa where after having a personal introduction from the train manager, we enjoyed dinner, our very own cabin and after a very bumpy night's sleep, a scrummy breakfast. The train went through one of kenya's national parks, though only saw zebra, and past many villages where the kids came out and ran alongside the train asking for money. It got duller and duller as we approached Mombasa and we arrived in pouring rain, at the place where the sun always shines! Mombasa was great, yet a completely different feel from Nairobi or anywhere else we've visited in Kenya. We could have been in a different country, tuk tuks beeping left right and centre, the call from the mosques every few hours, small streets with beautifully ... read more

April 28th Victor and I woke up at a decent hour, about 8am if I remember correctly. We promptly headed out for breakfast, chai tea with milk and a samosa for me, black coffee for Victor. It was during this breakfast that I realized that I had lost the first of a few items that I had brought with me. My Swahili-English dictionary, given to me by my friend Melanie had gone missing. I either left it on a stoop while waiting for Victor’s cousin the night before, or on the bus, but I deduced it was on the steps. I was after all on 6 hours of sleep and 20 hours of jet lag, plus 9 hours by bus. After breakfast we headed for the bus station area to get the next one to Lamu. ... read more

Paradise Lost A conceptual image of Paradise is reality, but can only be found within the architectural framework of an idealist’s imagination. Just as Happiness and Sadness, Good and Evil—these concepts do not exist, yet are everywhere. They are undiscoverable, can’t by found, hidden from the materialistic world; but they simply wait, readily available to be experienced whenever the heart is open and the mind is broad. In The Island of Lost Maps, author Miles Harvey states: These days… not even the truest of true believers would dare to put Paradise on a map. Yet despite the cynicism of our age, we humans have not lost our urge to quest after that place of perfect contentment, never quite finding it but never giving up hope, sometimes drawing so near that we can almost smell the faint ... read more